South Mount Hebron - all along the road you see blockages of dirt roads
The parking lot at Meitar Checkpoint is almost empty. Workers still are not permitted to enter Israel except for a small number of essential workers.
A new fence is being constructed around Widady to Route 317 that will prevent herds and flocks belonging to the Palestinians from entering the area.
At Zanuta, that was forcefully abandoned, we saw a settler on horseback grazing his herd on Palestinian land.
We drove to Bassal at A-Tawani to take packages of food to be distributed. He told us that things were currently calm. He will be traveling to Berlin to attend a film festival with Yuval Avraham to present a film that he has been preparing for several years.
We saw more and more buildings belonging to illegal outposts and fences around the hills along Route 317.
We arrived at Um Al kheir to bring food to Aziz’s mother. She told us that she only has three goats, but the settlers from Carmel nearby don’t allow her to let them out to graze.
The Zif Junction is closed and vehicles cannot cross. The crossing is closed by a gate and people have to walk around. This is the main crossing from Route 317 to Yata. There are no soldiers there to open the gate if necessary. Closed and that’s it…
We drove along Route 356 towards Route 60 and the area of Al_Baqah to see the Jabar Family at Atta. Their location is beneath Kiryat Arba. We met Jodi and his nieces.
He told us that he has put screens on the windows of his home because settlers throw stones at their home and he is afraid that they will throw fire bombs as well.
Several days ago soldiers came and broke the lock to his gate without waiting for them to open it. They forbade him from digging a sewage pit, claiming that he was liable to dig a tunnel to reach Kiryat Arba.
We left food packages with him to distribute.
We continued on to Route 60. The Sheep Junction was closed. There was no possibility for vehicles to cross to Hebron or to the industrial zone. Kilkis Junction was closed to vehicles and only pedestrians can cross. Taxis were waiting on both sides of the crossing.
Al Fawwar Junction and the entrance to as-Samu were closed.
We saw blockages of the dirt roads that would have shortened any drive to go anywhere for any reason. The Palestinians need to drive further which takes a long time and makes it much harder to go.
South Hebron Hills
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South Hebron Hills
South Hebron Hills is a large area in the West Bank's southern part.
Yatta is a major city in this area: right in the border zone between the fertile region of Hebron and its surroundings and the desert of the Hebron Hills. Yatta has about 64,000 inhabitants.
The surrounding villages are called Masafer Yatta (Yatta's daughter villages). Their inhabitants subsist on livestock and agriculture. Agriculture is possible only in small plots, especially near streams. Most of the area consists of rocky terraces.Since the beginning of the 1980s, many settlements have been established on the agricultural land cultivated by the Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills region: Carmel, Maon, Susia, Masadot Yehuda, Othniel, and more. Since the settlements were established and Palestinians cultivation areas have been reduced; the residents of the South Hebron Hills have been suffering from harassment by the settlers. Attempts to evict and demolish houses have continued, along with withholding water and electricity. The military and police usually refrain from intervening in violent incidents between settlers and Palestinians do not enforce the law when it comes to the investigation of extensive violent Jewish settlers. The harassment in the South Hebron Hills includes attacking and attempting to burn residential tents, harassing dogs, harming herds, and preventing access to pastures.
There are several checkpoints in the South Hebron Hills, on Routes 317 and 60. In most of them, no military presence is apparent, but rather an array of pillboxes monitor the villages. Roadblocks are frequently set up according to the settlers and the army's needs. These are located at the Zif Junction, the Dura-al Fawwar crossing, and the Sheep Junction at the southern entrance to Hebron.
Updated April 2022
Michal TsadikJul-25-2025The interior of the burnt house
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